3-year-old, father killed in Pattani attack

March 19, 2014 00:00
By The Nation

A CONSTRUCTION worker and his three-year-old son were killed when unknown gunmen opened fire on them yesterday in Pattani's Yaring district.

Following the attack just after midnight, police went to a house in tambon Ratapangyang to find the body of Nuradine Masila, 27, near an overturned motorcycle. His son sustained a gunshot wound in the body and was rushed to Prince of Songkhla Hospital in Songkhla’s Hat Yai district, but was pronounced dead at 9am.

Nuradine’s wife Yawahe Mayubee and their two-year-old daughter were not injured. Yawahe said the family had returned home from a party for soldiers in the village when the gunmen in hiding opened fire on them. Police are investigating if the attack was part of the ongoing unrest or stemmed from a personal conflict.

Meanwhile, a homemade bomb attack on Ma Yor-Yarang Road wounded two policemen in tambon Koh Chan in Ma Yor district. It targeted the police patrol team in a pickup truck and on a motorcycle. Two officers on the motorcycle, Police Lance Corporal Adithep Sangthong, 31, and Police Corporal Rusadi Jehdoloh, 22, sustained bomb shrapnel wounds and were taken to Ma Yor Hospital. Adithep later succumbed to the fatal injuries, while Rusadi's condition was stable.

In related news, a police probe found that a gun used in the shooting and burning of a former policeman and gas station owner in Yala’s Yaha district on Monday was the same weapon in the killing of three people at a latex-buying stall in Kabang district on February 22. CCTV footage revealed that six men on three motorcycles pulled over at the gas station and one shot the victim, police said.

Arrest warrants have been issued for four suspects in the Kabang case.